874 F. 2d 647 - United States v. Ayarza
874 F2d 647 United States v. Ayarza
Miguel Gabriel AYARZA, Defendant-Appellant.
Argued Jan. 10, 1989.
Submitted April 21, 1989.
Decided May 9, 1989.
Joseph W. Bottini, Asst. U.S. Atty., Anchorage, Alaska, for plaintiff-appellee.
Nancy Shaw, Asst. Federal Public Defender, Anchorage, Alaska, for defendant-appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Alaska.
Before WRIGHT, TANG and WIGGINS, Circuit Judges.
WIGGINS, Circuit Judge:
Appellant Miguel G. Ayarza appeals his conviction of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(a)(1) (1982), and his sentence of 78 months imprisonment, four years of supervised release, and a $3500 fine. Appellant entered a conditional plea of guilty, reserving his right to challenge the district court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence seized by Alaska State Troopers after they exposed his carry-on luggage to trained narcotics detection dogs. Further, Appellant challenges the propriety of his sentence, which the district court imposed according to the terms of the Sentencing Guidelines. The district court had jurisdiction of this case under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3231 (1982). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291 (1982). We affirm.
One month prior to arresting Appellant, Trooper Al Storey had observed him conversing with United Airlines ticketing agents. Trooper Storey's attention had been drawn to Appellant because the agents had denied him access to a flight bound for New York, believing him to be under the influence of a controlled substance. One month later Trooper Storey's attention was again drawn to Appellant after ticketing agents told Trooper Storey that Appellant had returned and was again bound for New York, but that his ground time would be less than eight hours. Trooper Storey did not see Appellant board the aircraft, but the agents at the gate described Appellant and told him that Appellant's luggage consisted only of a small carry-on bag.
Through the use of airline reservation computers Trooper Storey was able to determine that Appellant arrived in, and departed from, New York according to his itinerary. Trooper Storey was able to determine further that Appellant's flight arrived in Seattle, Washington too late for him to catch his connecting flight to Anchorage, but that Appellant had been reassigned a seat in row eleven of a flight that would arrive in Anchorage the following afternoon. Trooper Storey was waiting at the gate when Appellant was the first passenger to disembark from this flight.
Trooper Storey followed Appellant as he walked quickly through the concourse, leaving the other passengers far behind. Trooper Storey noticed that slung over Appellant's shoulder was a large garment bag that he believed did not match the description of the small carry-on bag that Appellant had with him when he departed from Anchorage. Trooper Storey further observed that Appellant's pace quickened as he walked through a glassed-in hallway, and that Appellant repeatedly glanced at the window, which by that time of day reflected the interior of the concourse. Trooper Storey also observed Appellant walk to the far left of the exit area where the airport's security monitor was posted.
Appellant proceeded to the first available exit on the upper level of the terminal and, as he passed through the door, he looked over his shoulder to see that Trooper Storey was following him. Appellant stopped at the curbside and looked to his left as though expecting somebody to pick him up. Trooper Storey approached Appellant at that time, identified himself as a law enforcement officer, and asked Appellant if he could speak to him. Appellant gave an affirmative response. Trooper Storey advised Appellant that he was not under arrest and that he could leave without saying anything more. Appellant declined to leave.
Trooper Storey first asked appellant if he could see some identification. Trooper Storey observed Appellant sort through various documents in his billfold, including what appeared to be an Alaska identification, before extracting a California driver's license. Trooper Storey asked Appellant where he had traveled from and Appellant replied that he had come from Seattle. Trooper Storey then asked Appellant the purpose of his visit and Appellant replied that he had visited a sick aunt. When Trooper Storey asked Appellant if his aunt lived in Seattle, Appellant replied that his aunt lived in New York and had recently had an operation for the removal of corns on her feet. Appellant explained that he had gone for two days. Trooper Storey noticed that Appellant's nervousness heightened when, in response to Appellant's query, Trooper Storey explained that he was conducting a drug investigation. Appellant then explained to Trooper Storey that he had come directly outside of the terminal in order to catch a cab. Trooper Storey knew, however, that cabs usually pick up passengers at the lower level of the terminal.
At this point Trooper Storey asked Appellant if he would allow his bag to be exposed to a scent detection canine. Appellant hesitated, replying that he wanted to contact his attorney. Trooper Storey allowed him to make a phone call, but required him to position the garment bag so that it was not concealed from Trooper Storey's view. When Appellant returned he told Trooper Storey that his attorney advised him not to allow the search unless he was placed under arrest. Trooper Storey then told Appellant that he was free to go, but that he was going to detain the garment bag and expose it to a scent detection canine. He further explained that Appellant could accompany him and that at most the procedure would take thirty to forty minutes. When Appellant declined, Trooper Storey advised Appellant that the bag would be returned immediately if the dog did not alert to its contents. Trooper Storey offered Appellant a receipt for the bag, but Appellant declined to accept one.
Trooper Storey took possession of the bag and a few minutes later exposed it to "Irma," who alerted positively to the odor of a controlled substance contained in the bag. Trooper Bowman, who had joined Trooper Storey toward the end of his conversation with Appellant, then exposed the garment bag to "Meik," who also alerted positively to the odor of a controlled substance contained in the bag. The Troopers then obtained a search warrant, opened the bag, and found a large, rectangular object rolled up in some clothing items. White crystalline powder found inside the object field-tested positive for the presence of cocaine. A subsequent analysis confirmed that 1005.7 grams of cocaine were contained in Appellant's garment bag.
Appellant filed a motion in the district court to suppress the evidence of cocaine on the grounds that Trooper Storey's conduct in detaining Appellant's garment bag amounted to an unreasonable search and seizure, contravening the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution. The district court referred the matter to a magistrate who, after conducting an evidentiary hearing, recommended that the motion be denied. The magistrate reasoned that Trooper Storey had reasonable, articulable suspicion to believe that criminal conduct was in progress, and that many of the so-called "drug courier profile" factors supported this suspicion. Over Appellant's objection the district court adopted the magistrate's recommendation.
Before receiving his sentence Appellant filed a motion challenging the constitutionality of the 1984 Sentencing Reform Act. The district court ruled that the Act was constitutional, and therefore denied Appellant's motion. Appellant also filed a motion for a downward adjustment of the sentence required by the Sentencing Guidelines, arguing that his cooperation with the authorities warranted an exemption. Over Appellant's due process objection, the district court ruled that the exemption could not be made except by motion of the Government. Pursuant to his conditional plea of guilty, Appellant appeals the district court's denial of each of these motions.
* We review de novo to determine whether under the stated facts1 Trooper Storey had reasonable and articulable suspicion for detaining appellant's garment bag. United States v. Erwin, 803 F.2d 1505, 1509-10 (9th Cir.1986). At bottom, this issue involves "balancing the amount of intrusion upon individual privacy," Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 515, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1333, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983) (Blackmun, J., dissenting), against the public's "compelling interest in detecting those who would traffic in deadly drugs for personal profit," United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 561, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1881, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980) (opinion of Powell, J.). The problem is best illustrated by envisioning a three-tier structure, at the bottom of which lies the government's authority to stop and question any individual, for any reason, "[a]s long as the person to whom questions are put remains free to disregard the questions and walk away." Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 554, 100 S.Ct. at 1877 (opinion of Stewart, J.). At the top of the structure lies the government's authority to effectuate an arrest, but only for "probable cause." Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 91, 85 S.Ct. 223, 225-26, 13 L.Ed.2d 142 (1964). And in between these two extremes lies the government's authority to detain an individual or his possessions for purposes of furthering a valid investigation, the scope of which is circumscribed by the officer's reasonable and articulable suspicion. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1879-80, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 706, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 2644, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983).
Each of these three tiers may be implicated in a single sequence. For example, an officer may initiate a conversation with an individual who has every reason to believe that he is free to leave. See, e.g., Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 555, 100 S.Ct. at 1878 (opinion of Stewart, J.) ("nothing in the record suggests that respondent had any objective reason to believe that she was not free to end the conversation in the concourse and proceed on her way, and for that reason we conclude that the agents' initial approach to her was not a seizure"). Nevertheless, this conversation may evolve into a situation where the individual's ability to leave dissipates. If the officer restrains an individual's ability to leave or limits his freedom to control his property, he is justified in doing so only by the presence of reasonable suspicion. See, e.g., Florida v. Rodriguez, 469 U.S. 1, 6, 105 S.Ct. 308, 311, 83 L.Ed.2d 165 (1984) (per curiam) ("Assuming, without deciding, that after respondent agreed to talk with the police, moved over to where his cohorts and the other detectives were standing, and ultimately granted permission to search his baggage, there was a 'seizure' for purposes of the Fourth Amendment, we hold that any such seizure was justified by 'articulable suspicion.' "). Even if this requirement is met, however, the circumstance may escalate into what essentially constitutes an arrest. Unless the officer has "probable cause" by this point, the arrest violates the fourth amendment. See, e.g., Florida v. Royer, 460 U.S. 491, 503, 507, 103 S.Ct. 1319, 1329, 75 L.Ed.2d 229 (1983) (opinion of White, J.) ("As a practical matter, Royer was under arrest" by the time officers questioned him in an interrogation room, and under the circumstances the prosecution could not justify his "custody by proving probable cause.").
Applying these principles to the circumstances at hand, we conclude that a reasonable person in Appellant's position would have believed himself free to ignore Trooper Storey's initial questioning. Cf. United States v. $25,000 U.S. Currency, 853 F.2d 1501, 1505 (9th Cir.1988) (suspect "was not seized for purposes of the fourth amendment at the time of the initial encounter nor at the time he was asked for his airline ticket and identification"); Erwin, 803 F.2d at 1508 ("a reasonable person in Erwin's position [who had been stopped in an airport parking lot and asked for identification and plane tickets] would have considered himself free to leave"). By the time Trooper Storey told Appellant that he would have to detain his luggage, however, the situation had evolved into one where Trooper Storey needed reasonable suspicion. Cf. id. at 1509 ("the seizure of Erwin's day pack required only reasonable suspicion, not probable cause"). Assuming for the moment that this prerequisite was satisfied, Trooper Storey's exposure of Appellant's garment bag to a canine sniff test, conducted promptly after inviting Appellant to observe, was within the permissible scope of the investigatory stop. Id.; cf. Place, 462 U.S. at 710, 103 S.Ct. at 2646 (90-minute detention of Place's luggage deemed unreasonable, especially because agents failed to inform Place of the details of the procedure or how he could recover his luggage in the event the investigation dispelled the officers' suspicion). Moreover, the positive result of this test supplied probable cause to obtain a search warrant for the full search of the garment bag. See id. at 701, 103 S.Ct. at 2641 (law enforcement officers who have probable cause to believe a container holds contraband, but who have not obtained a warrant, may seize the container until a warrant is properly issued). In short, the seizure of the cocaine from Appellant's garment bag was lawful unless, upon further analysis, we conclude as a matter of law that Trooper Storey did not have reasonable and articulable suspicion--at the time he asked Appellant to consent to a canine sniff test--that Appellant's garment bag contained narcotics.
The government argues that Trooper Storey had reasonable and articulable suspicion to believe that Appellant was transporting narcotics based on his knowledge that Appellant's conduct matched various factors of the "drug courier profile," including: (1) Appellant scheduled a two-day trip to a known drug source city with a ground time of only eight hours; (2) he deplaned first even though he was seated in the eleventh row of the aircraft; (3) he carried only carry-on luggage and returned with a bag different than the one he carried on the date he departed; (4) he appeared nervous and walked at a rapid pace through the terminal; (5) he repeatedly glanced at the reflection in the concourse window in an effort to detect surveillance; (6) he exited the terminal at the top level even though taxi service was generally available at the bottom level; (7) he avoided revealing that his trip was to New York; (8) he produced a California identification even though Trooper Storey saw him pass over an Alaska identification; and (9) he offered an implausible excuse for traveling so far for so little time.
The government relies mainly on our decision in United States v. Erwin, 803 F.2d 1505, 1509-10 (9th Cir.1986), to support its argument that these factors, viewed collectively, establish the requisite reasonable suspicion needed to detain Appellant's luggage. In Erwin we concluded that enforcement officers had reasonable suspicion to detain luggage based on Erwin's long distance trip for only a brief time period; he traveled alone and carried only a day pack; he scanned the passenger area after deplaning; he walked erratically through the terminal at a quick pace; he backtracked through the baggage claim area without picking up any luggage; he appeared nervous when questioned; and he offered an implausible excuse for his conduct. See id. at 1506-07. The government argues that the nearly identical circumstances of Erwin warrants a conclusion that Trooper Storey's detention of Appellant's luggage was supported by reasonable suspicion.
Appellant, on the other hand, distinguishes Erwin from the facts of this case because, unlike here, Erwin took a circuitous route through the airport in an effort to evade detection. According to Appellant, this factor is persuasive evidence of an "ongoing" criminal enterprise that is needed before a conclusion of reasonable suspicion can be found. Appellant thus argues that this case is controlled by our decision in United States v. Sokolow, 831 F.2d 1413 (9th Cir.1987), rev'd, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 104 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989), in which we held that "reasonable suspicion may be founded upon evidence of ongoing criminal behavior," which may only then be "supplemented by other aspects of the [drug courier] profile that would not by themselves create reasonable suspicion." Id. at 1421. Appellant's counsel conceded at oral argument, however, that the proper course in this case was to postpone consideration of this contention until the Supreme Court had the opportunity independently to consider the rule announced in Sokolow.
The Supreme Court has now issued its ruling in that case, which clearly disapproves segmenting the evidence into that which indicates "ongoing" criminal activity and that which does not. United States v. Sokolow, --- U.S. ----, ----, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 1586, 104 L.Ed.2d ---- (1989). Such a rigid formula, according to the Court, seems only "to draw a sharp line between types of evidence, the value of which varies only in degree." Id. Because "reasonable suspicion" cannot be " 'readily, or even usefully, reduced to a neat set of rules,' " the Court reiterated its oft expressed belief that the ultimate determination depends solely on the " 'totality of the circumstances.' " Id. (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 232, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2329, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983), and United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417, 101 S.Ct. 690, 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981)). Our disposition of this case is controlled by the Court's reasoning. Therefore, we need not dispute counsel's argument that each factor known to Trooper Storey, if viewed alone, was consistent with wholly innocent activity. Cf. Reid v. Georgia, 448 U.S. 438, 441, 100 S.Ct. 2752, 2754, 65 L.Ed.2d 890 (1980) (three drug profile characteristics described "a very large category of presumably innocent travelers," and a fourth factor was insufficient on the facts of that case to establish reasonable suspicion). We conclude instead that these factors, viewed collectively, support a finding that Trooper Storey had reasonable suspicion to believe that Appellant was transporting narcotics. See Sokolow, --- U.S. at ----, 109 S.Ct. at ---- (although none of the factors "by itself [is] proof of any illegal conduct," "taken together they amount to reasonable suspicion").
Important to our decision is the district court's finding that Trooper Storey was able to track Appellant through the airline reservation system and confirm that his ground time in a known drug source city was very short compared to his flight time. Cf. id. ("surely few residents of Honolulu travel from that city for 20 hours to spend 48 hours in Miami during the month of July"). Also important is the fact that Appellant offered an implausible excuse when asked about his travel arrangements. Cf. Erwin, 803 F.2d at 1510-11 (explanation for weaving through airport implausible); see also Florida v. Rodriguez, 469 U.S. 1, 6, 105 S.Ct. 308, 311, 83 L.Ed.2d 165 (1984) (per curiam) (suspects contradicted themselves when questioned about their identities). These two factors, combined with the others, leaves us with the impression that Trooper Storey reasonably suspected that Appellant's conduct was inconsistent with innocent activity. We therefore find unconvincing Appellant's argument that Trooper Storey lacked reasonable suspicion simply because he neither traveled under an alias nor avoided detection by walking on a circuitous route through the airport terminal. Cf. United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 563-66, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 1882-83, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980) (opinion of Powell, J.) (inter alia, suspect deplaned last on a flight arriving from a known drug source city and appeared nervous as she scanned the concourse). We hold that the district court properly rejected Appellant's motion to suppress evidence because Trooper Storey had reasonable suspicion, under the totality of the circumstances, to detain Appellant's garment bag and subject it to a canine sniff test.
The district court rejected Appellant's challenge to the constitutionality of the 1984 Sentencing Reform Act. On appeal Appellant relies on our decision in Gubiensio-Ortiz v. Kanahele, 857 F.2d 1245 (9th Cir.1988), vacated, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 859, 102 L.Ed.2d 984 (1989), on remand, 871 F.2d 104 (9th Cir.1989) (per curiam), to argue that the district court's decision was erroneous and therefore his case should be remanded for resentencing. Our decision in Gubiensio is no longer valid law, see 871 F.2d at 104; Mistretta v. United States, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 647, 102 L.Ed.2d 714 (1989), and therefore we cannot accept Appellant's contention. Appellant argues alternatively that the district court erred in rejecting his motion for a downward adjustment to the sentence based on his "substantial assistance in the investigation or prosecution of another," as permitted in section 5K1.1 of the Sentencing Guidelines and also in section 3553(e) of Title 18. Each of these provisions, however, explicitly conditions such a downward adjustment "upon motion of the government"--a prerequisite that is not met here.
Appellant argues nonetheless that this prerequisite violates the doctrine of separation of powers by delegating to prosecutors the unbridled discretion to decide who is entitled to a sentencing reduction.2 A similar argument was considered and rejected in United States v. Severich, 676 F.Supp. 1209 (S.D.Fla.1988), aff'd, 872 F.2d 434 (11th Cir.1989). The district court there adopted the magistrate's reasoning that the sentencing process is not inherently judicial and that, even if it were, the government's authority to recommend a reduced sentence was not impermissibly obtrusive. Id. at 1212-13. To the same effect is the Eleventh Circuit's decision in United States v. Musser, 856 F.2d 1484 (11th Cir.1988), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 1145, 103 L.Ed.2d 205 (1989), in which the court noted that there is no "constitutional right" to the availability of a substantial assistance provision, "and hence no grounds upon which to challenge Congress' manner of enacting it." Id. at 1487. We find the reasoning of these decisions persuasive.
Appellant also argues that section 3553 and section 5K1.1 violate his constitutional right to due process. Again, this argument was considered and rejected in Severich because, according to the magistrate's reasoning, the defendant's liberty interests under Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165, 72 S.Ct. 205, 96 L.Ed. 183 (1952), and Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, 58 S.Ct. 149, 82 L.Ed. 288 (1937), gave way "to the antidrug abuse strategies advanced by Congress." Severich, 676 F.Supp. at 1214. The magistrate believed, as the Government argues here, that it is rational for Congress to lodge some sentencing discretion in the prosecutor, the only individual who knows whether a defendant's cooperation has been helpful. See also Musser, 856 F.2d at 1487. We agree. Therefore we hold that section 3553 and section 5K1.1 are not unconstitutional insofar as they allow only the Government to seek a departure from the minimum mandatory sentence to reflect a defendant's "substantial assistance."
The district court did not err in denying Appellant's motion to suppress evidence, and it correctly rejected Appellant's motion for a downward adjustment of his sentence. Accordingly his conviction and sentence are AFFIRMED.
Neither party contests the district court's findings of fact, and therefore we assume that the stated facts are not clearly erroneous. Cf. United States v. Sokolow, 831 F.2d 1413, 1417 & n. 3 (9th Cir.1987), rev'd on other grounds, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 104 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989)
Appellant also suggests that section 5K1.1 is an invalid exercise of the Sentencing Commission's delegated authority because 28 U.S.C. Sec. 994(n) (Supp. III 1985), which empowers the Sentencing Commission to provide for downward adjustments to account for a defendant's "substantial assistance," does not limit the district court's sentencing discretion to motions brought by the government. We believe that the Sentencing Commission did not exceed its authority in drafting such a requirement in view of the fact that Congress itself drafted section 3553 the same way


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Ubuntoo position on biodegradable plastics
The term "biodegradable" has been used over the past few years, to describe plastics or packaging that could potentially be metabolized by microorganisms in nature, with complete breakdown to CO2/Methane, water and biomass. However, there is significant confusion and controversy surrounding biodegradable plastics since many suppliers have used the term to loosely describe their material/packaging without specifying the conditions under which the material would degrade in nature. For instance, some plastics (like PLA) will only degrade under industrial composting conditions, while some others (like PHA) can break down under a wider range of conditions and environments (industrial, backyard, marine). Given this widespread confusion and the misuse of the "biodegradable" term, many global government and industry organizations have issued guidelines to restrict or eliminate the unqualified use of biodegradable as a descriptor of plastics or packaging. These include the European Commission guidelines (European Plastics Strategy) and the Federal Trade Commission Green Guides in the US.
In line with such guidelines, Ubuntoo's recommends that companies providing biodegradable materials, products or packaging:
1.Avoid unqualified use of the term "biodegradable" to describe their products
2.Any claim of biodegradability should be accompanied by a description of specific conditions and environments under which the material or product will undergo degradation in nature
3.It is strongly recommended that companies provide globally accepted certifications or testing for various biodegradability claims (such as the BPA certification for industrial composting)
Further in line with the position articulated by the European Commission as well as major CPG companies, Ubuntoo recommends that "biodegradable" plastics should not be considered a solution for littering (or worse a license to litter). Appropriate collection and end-of-life solutions (such as industrial composting or home composting) need to be put into place to avoid biodegradable plastics ending up as litter in the environment.
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NENU2PHAR
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Developing competitive value chains for PHA bioplastics
NENU2PHAR is an ongoing research project that aims to use Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) to develop competitive value chains of bioplastics for high-volume consumer goods industries. The project is being completed by a 16-member consortium led by Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (France).
Due to the environmental impact of plastics there is creating a growing demand for sustainable alternatives. There is a need to focus on bioplastics based on bacteria, fungi, and algae which have a smaller carbon footprint and are also suitable for sustainable waste management options like composting.
The project aims to develop a new route of production of PHAs using micro-algae biomass and a selection of bacteria strains. It will develop eight products with end-of-life scenarios. It will formulate and functionalise polymers for masterbatching and compounding. This will ensure that the material is processable and can meet the needs of manufacturers.
Processes to ensure that the materials achieve properties at least as good as fossil-fuel plastics will be developed along with prototypes of eco-designed PHA-biobased products. The project will use material selection, design and process definition to reduce waste.
It will explore end-of-life scenarios such as composting, recycling and re-manufacturing. Eventually the project has a goal to establish a range of cross-sectoral connections between biopolymer extraction, compounding, product plastic manufacturers, recycling and remanufacturing industries.
The project includes 16 partners:
4 large industrials: DANONE (France), KAJ PLASTICS (Poland), SOFRADIM PRODUCTION (France), IFG EXELTO (Belgium)
6 SMEs: ELIXANCE (France), CELABOR (Belgium), BIO-MI Ltd (Croatia), BIOTREND (Portugal), LOMARTOV S.L. Applied Innovation Engineering (Spain), ZERO EMISSIONS ENGINEERING B.V. (The Netherlands)
4 RTOs: CEA (France's Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), Innovation Plasturgie Composites (France), ITENE (Spain), CENTEXBEL (Belgium)
1 academic: Université de Bretagne Sud – Institut de recherche Dupuy de Lôme (France)
1 innovative cluster: IAR, the French Bioeconomy Cluster (France)
The project started on September 1st, 2020 with a total budget of €6.39 million that includes a grant of €4.98 million from the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI-JU). It is expected to end in February 2024.
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Choose the Simplest Git Workflow For Your Team
Photo by Yancy Min on Unsplash
Git has become the ubiquitous source code management since its introduction in 2005. Along the way, a number of branching strategies ("workflows") have evolved. As with anything in software architecture, there is no one right way to do anything; it all depends on context. In this post I'll describe three common workflows to help you choose the simplest Git workflow for your team.
Basic Workflow
In this workflow there is only one branch – master. Everyone commits and pushes their changes to master. All team members can readily see all the changes to the code base. Your build server is easier to configure because it only needs to respond to changes on master. As a result, the team gets faster feedback because everyone is working on the same branch. This workflow is suitable for when the pace of development is slow, and the team can complete all the features planned for the coming release.
Where the Basic Workflow becomes a problem is when the development pace is faster than the release cadence. In other words, when the team decides to take a release through QA testing and production deployment while simultaneously working on features for the next release. You can overcome this by using feature flags to hide new features from the current release. But the code needs to be clean and modular in order for feature flags to be useful. Spaghetti code and bad designs won't work with feature flags.
Feature Branch Workflow
Similar to the Basic Workflow in that there is only one permanent branch – master. But each new feature has its own temporary branch, known as a feature branch. A developer creates a feature branch from the head of master, and makes all their changes on that feature branch. When they are done, they merge it back in to master, and delete the feature branch. Many teams have the developer issue a pull request (PR) before merging so the lead developer or other team members can review the changes. Once approved or up-voted, someone merges the feature branch back into master.
It's important that each developer frequently merge changes from develop into their feature branch. This should be done at least once a day so that they incorporate other team members' work into theirs. It also avoids merge conflicts and breaking builds since everyone can keep their local copies up to date.
This workflow is handy for tracking the code changes for a particular feature. When the team names their feature branches after the feature name, tracking is simple. In fact, Atlassian's Jira makes this easy. Another is the use of PRs promotes learning by having other team members review the code changes. It also helps a lead developer or architect monitor the evolving design of the software.
One drawback is not everyone sees the changes to the code base. If you are on master, you won't see a developer's feature branch until it is merged back in. Another drawback is if your build server (Jenkins, CircleCI, etc.) is configured to look at just one branch (master), there is a delay in feedback until the feature branch is merged into master.
Gitflow Workflow
In the Gitflow workflow there are two permanent branches – master and develop. The master branch reflects what is in or on its way to Production. Feature branches are taken off develop and merged back in. When the time comes to make a release, the team merges develop into master.
This workflow is great for when the pace of development exceeds the release cadence. When the team decides to make a release, they merge develop into master so the latter now has all the features planned for the upcoming release. Work on the next release continues on develop, with feature branches created off it and merged back into it.
The Gitflow Workflow handles production hot fixes quite nicely too. These are critical fixes that cannot wait for the next scheduled release. Take a branch off master to work on the hot fix. When complete, merge the hotbox branch into both master and develop.
Which Workflow Do We Use?
So there you have three of the most common Git workflows. But how do you choose? My advice is to choose the simplest Git workflow for your team. Start with the Basic Workflow. If that works for your team, great! If you realize you need the capabilities of one of the other workflows, and you can live with its drawbacks, then adopt it. Conversely, if one of these workflows turns out to be overkill for your team, you can fall back to a simpler once master and develop are aligned.
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TNW at IBC: GoPro cameras for extreme filmmakers have 'vomit-proof' housings
by Jamillah Knowles — in Video
The Next Web has been in Amsterdam at International Broadcasting Convention (IBC), livestreaming interviews from the event with the help of LiveU.
If you missed the streaming live, our interviews are on site so you can find out what the future of broadcast looks like. You can find more of our video coverage and catch up with the future of broadcasting from IBC here.
GoPro, the camera company known for products that can be used extreme conditions, in the trickiest places were at the convention and Kash Shaikh, director of global communications at the company came to chat with us about the development of 'the little grey box that could'.
GoPro was founded in California by a surfer who wanted to capture images of surfers in the barrel of a wave. At the time there was no way for people to capture an event while experiencing it.
Anywhere, anytime filming
Initially GoPro cameras were created to be worn on the wrist and now the unit can be worn in most places and used in multiple ways.
"The most magical thing we could do was put our camera in the hands of creative people who are showing us new ways to use it that we couldn't have imagined. Now people in film, entertainment, music and even science are using our cameras, even NASA is sending our cameras into space," explains Shaikh.
But it's not only the extreme sportsmen and women who are using the GoPro cameras. "We really consider our camera to be a lifestyle camera, says Shaikh. "People attach them to their dog's collar or to the handlebars of their little girl's bike as she learns to ride for the first time, they can capture her expression. People are using it in their daily lives in ways they were not able to before."
Shaikh has some big plans ahead, including work with a US fighter-jet team where the GoPros will be mounted to the jets. He'll be sitting in the jets as they perform free-dives, a stomach flipping exercise for most people, but Shaikh assures us, "These camera housings are vomit-proof so we should be good."
Check out the video to find out what he will be up to in the skies.
Read next: TNW at IBC: Irdeto on tracking global piracy habits across the Web


14 Nintendo Switch Ports We'd Still Love To See
As soon as the Switch was revealed, attention swiftly turned to "ooh, do you think this and that game will be on it, I want to play that one while riding in a hot air balloon / sitting in a park / on the loo". Since that day dreams have been fulfilled as some iconic games have been available in portable form, with the most recent announcement (at the time of writing) being Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection.
Over the winter holidays we generally run an annual list of games we'd be ecstatically pleased to (re)play on Switch, and the announcement of Assassin's Creed II — one of our very favourite games in that series — finally coming to Switch had us reminiscing about the games we've dared to dream might get a Switch port in the past. Our hybrid wishlists have been fulfilled from right across the industry, from major triple-A titles like The Witcher 3, Dark Souls and Bioshock: The Collection through to Indie classics beyond count. The little system has even answered the ultimate gamers' question — can it run Crysis? Yes, yes it can.
But, we always want more.
Below we've consolidated a bunch of games we'd still love to see make their way onto Switch in an update to a previous article that collects more titles, old and new, into a single ongoing list that we'll keep updated in the future. There are a few remaining Wii U games that haven't come to Switch which we've excluded from the running, but each and every one below would be gratefully received on Nintendo's console should a publisher deign to make it happen. We're open to adding more — and hopefully subtracting some, too — so feel free to suggest worthy additions in the comments.
Wallets open, money ready. Come on, it's there for the takin'…
Tomb Raider: Survivor Trilogy
That title refers to the recent-ish compilation release of Tomb Raider (2013), Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the trilogy developed by Crystal Dynamics and Eidos-Montréal. They're rather good games (with the original being a real stand-out late in the PS3 / Xbox 360 era) that tell the origin story of the iconic character, and they all have a flair for cinematic action and some occasional tomb raiding. Not all diehard fans of the IP approve of the games, but we reckon they're a fun time.
Low-ish, we'd say. This is an anniversary year for the franchise and would have been the ideal time, but Square Enix instead announced Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris for Switch, due this year. Still, it's better than nothing.
Inscryption is a deckbuilding roguelike psychological horror puzzler and various other bits thrown into a piece of software that's been the talk of the internet for the last few months and also graced many a multiplatform GOTY list. Even if the word 'roguelike' has you rolling your eyes into infinity, this is one you'll want to put aside your preconceived notions for.
Devolver Digital like the Switch. The game looks like a perfect fit for the platform. If we had to put our money on any game from this list coming to Switch, it would be this one.
Then again we said Persona 5 was a dead cert years ago. Speaking of which…
We hate to keep harping on… but we're gonna.
Persona 5, a game that — lest we forget — released on PS3 back in 2016, is still not available on a Nintendo system. Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers was pleasant enough, but it's not Persona 5.
Who can say when Atlus and Sega are concerned. They're leaving a sizeable wad of cash on the table as far as we're concerned, but perhaps Sony has the exclusivity rights tied up for something. If it was going to happen, it surely would have happened by now — but we're optimists at heart. It's never too late, Atlus.
Batman: Arkham Collection
It sometimes feels like the Rocksteady developed 'main' Arkham games have been done a disservice. Not only was the 'Return to Arkham' PS4 / Xbox One collection a technical disappointment, but the newest entry (Arkham Knight) has gone unloved and hasn't had any upgrades for the latest hardware. The trilogy, nevertheless, is comprised of three excellent games (in this scribe's humble opinion) that would be awesome to play on Switch.
It should be technically possible, though the third entry would be rather demanding to port across. The first two games should be do-able however, and let's not forget that we had Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition and Batman: Arkham Origins on Wii U, and even Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate on 3DS (later in its HD form on Wii U). The precedent is there.
Will it actually happen? Considering the haphazard treatment of the games over the years probably not. Still, you never know…
GOTY Winner at The Game Awards, It Takes Two relies on co-operation via splitscreen local (or online) play, and seems like it would be a perfect fit for Switch.
The game was developed by Hazelight Studios and founder Josef Fares' Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is available on Switch. The studios previous game, A Way Out, is only available on other platforms, though, and with EA on publishing duties, it's tough to predict whether or not Nintendo gamers will see this critically acclaimed title, however good a fit it would seem to be. Bringing it over might present an unappealing technical challenge, too.
NieR: Automata / NieR Replicant Ver. 1.224etc…
We've mentioned this one a lot in previous lists, so we might as well do it again — Platinum Games' award-winning NieR: Automata wouldn't be an easy port, but that doesn't mean it would be an impossible one. We now also have NieR Replicant 1.224EtcEtc on the market for other systems, which is an excellent remaster of one version of the original (its release origins, like the lore, are complicated).
Given the effort that would be needed to make solid Switch ports, we like to think that Platinum and other companies sitting on unwieldy but classic games are just waiting for some new Nintendo hardware — something slightly more powerful that would take the developmental headaches out of ports thanks to extra grunt in the specs department. They're all there, just waiting for news of 'Switch 2' or 'Switch Pro' or whatever, waiting to pump out impressive ports of slightly older classics and give this hypothetical system the greatest launch of any console in video game history.
That's what we like to think, anyway. Or some magicians could get them going on Switch.
First-person bug-hunter Bugsnax is still something we think would fit nicely on Switch. Nintendo gamers love ensnaring weird little monsters, after all, and we're eager to find out more after hearing strange murmurs over the last year concerning the exact nature of these ominously named entomological morsels.
Young Horses' game was a PS launch exclusive on consoles, and the developer has said "we'd love to bring the game to other platforms". Performance was choppy on PS4, so a Switch version would be a challenge, but certainly possible.
First-Ever Live Action NFT Series Casts Star of 'Hawkeye' & 'Van Helsing'


Spread across a chain of thousands of islands between Asia and Australia, Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population and Southeast Asia's biggest economy. Ethnically it is highly diverse, with more than 300 local languages. The people range from rural hunter-gatherers to a modern urban elite.
Sophisticated kingdoms existed before the arrival of the Dutch, who colonised the archipelago but gave in to an independence struggle in 1949. Indonesia has become one of the world's major emerging economies, but faces demands for independence in several provinces and increasing attacks by Islamist armed groups.
Capital: Jakarta
Population 261 million
Area 1.9 million sq km (742,308 sq miles)
Major languages Indonesian, 300 regional languages
Major religion Islam
Life expectancy 67 years (men), 71 years (women)
Currency Rupiah
UN, World Bank
(http://www.livinginindonesiaforum.org)
Anda disini: Home International Student Living in Indonesia About Indonesia


Rose Brand Gardens and Recycles
May 27, 2009 UncategorizedClean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Collective Expression, Communal Garden, Earth Day Celebrations, Efficient Lighting, Employee Volunteers, Endangered Species Act, Environmental Protection Agency, Event Entertainment, Hartz Mountain Industries, Lighting And Sound, Lighting Systems, Occupancy Sensors, Perennial Herbs, Political Alignment, Rose BRand, Secaucus New Jersey, Sound America, Theatrical Fabrics
Reprinted from: Lighting and Sound America Online (20 April 2009), (6 April 2009)
Hartz Mountain Industries, owner of the building at 4 Emerson Lane, Secaucus, New Jersey, has given permission to its tenant, Rose Brand, the specialist in theatrical fabrics, fabrications and supplies for the event, entertainment, and display industries, to plant a communal garden in celebration of Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22nd.
The garden will occupy 360 sq. ft. on the west side of the building with planned crops including vegetables, perennial herbs, and some flowers. Rose Brand employee volunteers will care for the garden and ultimately benefit from the food and herbs grown. This year, over one billion people worldwide are anticipated in the 2009 Earth Day celebrations.
Rose Brand's corporate headquarters and warehouse in Secaucus is considered state-of-the-art in terms of energy conservation, the company reports. With highly efficient lighting systems, occupancy sensors, and careful monitoring Rose Brand is actively reducing its carbon footprint. Hartz Mountain Industries has cited this building as being the paradigm of retrofit energy usage and a star in its portfolio of millions of square feet of commercial space. Rose Brand's operations manager, Bob Bertrand, stated, "This garden is an important milestone in our continuing education of our employees about environmental issues."
Earth Day has achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from both secular and religious leaders, rich and poor, urban dwellers and farmers businesses and labor leaders. The first Earth Day in 1970 lead to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the passage of The Clean Air Act, The Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. Earth Day is widely celebrated around the world as a collective expression of public will to create a sustainable society.
In a continuing effort to reuse, reduce, and recycle, Rose Brand will be earning money to be donated to The ESTA Foundation's Behind the Scenes by collecting empty printer cartridges and used cell phones and recycling them for cash credit at Funding Factory, a company based in Erie, Pennsylvania offering nationwide free recycling. The fundraiser continues Rose Brand's support of Behind the Scenes and the company's commitment to the environment.
As Josh Jacobstein, Rose Brand's sales director, said, "We have a long-term relationship with the entertainment industry and the hard-working people who make it all happen. With our recycling efforts we will create a benefit to Behind the Scenes and that's a perfect way of continuing our ongoing support of the industry and people we work with."
Rose Brand's Deborah Sperry added, "Rose Brand is on a journey to find the types of eco-friendly behaviors and activities that are genuine and sustainable. As the coordinator for Rose Brand's green journey I am pleased that our recycling of used toner cartridges and cell phones will result in a contribution to Behind the Scenes and our green goals."
All laser and inkjet cartridges and cell phones collected through this effort are sent to Funding Factory. Items are inspected and the value for each collected item in Rose Brand's account is then sent to The ESTA Foundation's Behind the Scenes program.
Go to the Green Theater Initiative
Greenwashing Alert: Rose Brand Neo-Flex
November 17, 2008 newscolortool, efficacy, efficiency, fiber optics, Flora Seris, Ian Garrett, LED, lighting, Linear ligt, Los Angeles, NeoFlex, Panorama Tour Edition, rope light, Rose BRand, Source Four
I receive a lot of mail, electronic and other wise, that deals with the lighting industry. My personal artistic practice is heavily centered in the discipline of lighting design and it behooves me to keep up with what is happening in the industry.
Lighting design in theater is uses alot of resources. The amount of electricity needed to illuminate a show is staggering even on the lowest levels, as compared to your average home or office. And, since technology is not in a place where you can really design a show in a traditional sense, it will be a very hard transition to make headway in this sector of the performing arts. I won't go into it much here, but will refer you to my paper, The Ecological Sustainability of Theatrical Lighting, on the site here.
This morning I received an email for Rose Brand, a company that makes curtains, expendables and useful items for theater production, based in Los Angeles. It is promoting their NeoFlex product. It is a Flexible Linear Light, which may as well be called rope light. It uses LEDs and can come in different colors as well as an RGB color change model. It is diffused to look like a solid linear light and since it uses LEDs, it is extremely energy efficient, which is to say it is marketable as "green."
So is it green?
For any application which it is suited, yes, it is a more "green" solution that others on the market. I won't say it's the greenest; I'm not going to do a side by side analysis of similar products. But if you need a linear lighting solution, sure, it is. If you're looking for an alternative to neon, it would be a good one. Neon, relative to an incandescent bulb, is pretty efficient, so the energy savings wouldn't be huge. But, it is safer since it is not breakable glass and doesn't require the high voltages that neon does. And it won't be as hot as neon. There are some design advantages too: it is flexible, reusable, doesn't need to be made to order and the color options are greater, especially the color changing RGB.
What other applications does it have? You could use it for cove lighting… where you have a wash against a wall or the ceiling to provide indirect decorative lighting. You could use it for any light rope application as well. You'd probably only want to replace rope light that was decorative though because of the look of the NeoFlex as it is much more expensive. But, the point is that it is primarily decorative, not a particularly practical light source at all. As a designer, I'm more interested on what its applications are and what I can do with it. As a color changing, cool to the touch, flexible linear light source I'm interested in it. I like that it uses much less power, and my clients will like that it would save them money if they're looking for the effect that it produces versus an alternative.
Why? It doesn't solve a problem. It offers an interesting solution to a design problem, but not a constructive solution to a particularly unsustainable and existing solution to that design problem. It is a little more energy efficient than fiber optic solutions, but doesn't do anything that you can't already do with fiber optics. Furthermore, it uses more material and isn't as adaptable as fiber optic solutions as I have used it.
There is a lot of lighting products out there being green washed. LEDs aren't yet practical or cost effective in general use, but they are pretty, colorful and you can control their use pretty extensively, so they are used a lot in theatrical settings. For putting color on stage or anywhere for that matter where you would otherwise use a lot of incandescent or halogen sources, LEDS offer a great step in the right direction on energy used and heat generated. But, it seems that you stick an LED in something and it becomes green. It isn't as green washed as the source four, which is marketed as green because it has high efficacy and outputs with 575w for which other instruments require 1000w, but it's tiring.
Just because something use an LED doesn't make it green, especially if you have developed it for the other benefits of LED use. It's lazy marketing and a paid forward pitch for the marketing of the application, be it show or club or what have you, to pitch that application as one which use green technology over alternatives.
Using more of something which is more efficient is still using more.
Also in the email, which you can see if you click here, are the Flora Series of fabric hanging flowers, Design Master Colortool® Spray Paint, 12 oz. Cans and Panorama Tour Edition. What the first and last have to do at all with being green I don't get and to call an aerosol paint "eco" because the can is partially recycled steel and it's non-toxic after it dries is a stretch (read the warnings on those labels folks). Be careful.


Winding down the year: Mellow rockers Ikebana released the beautiful "When You Arrive There" back in June. The duo will play a Flau Records showcase on Dec. Dec. 22 with labelmates Cuushe, Sparrows and more. | 22 WITH LABELMATES CUUSHE, SPARROWS AND MORE.
CSS, Makoto Ozone and Shonen Knife get a round of shows in before New Year's
by Shaun McKenna
With the year winding down and the holiday season approaching, the concert scene in Japan gets pretty quiet. Although there will be a few international acts headed here in the middle of December, your best shot for a live performance might be checking out local acts before they go into hibernation for New Year's holidays.
Of the acts coming over, there still might be a few tickets left for Brazilian hipsters CSS, the always charming Elvis Costello and slightly mature boy band The Wanted.
CSS will be playing Nagoya's Club Quattro on Dec. 11 (052-264-8211), Osaka's Umeda Club Quattro on Dec. 12 (06-6535-5569) and Ex Theater Roppongi in Tokyo on Dec. 14 (03-3444-6751). Tickets for all shows are ¥6,000 in advance, and starting times are 7 p.m. for the Tokyo gig and 7:30 p.m. for the other two. Costello will have three gigs with his band The Imposters at Ex Theater Roppongi from Dec. 11 to Dec. 13 (7:30 p.m. start; ¥8,000; 03-3444-6751) before heading to Namba Zepp in Osaka on Dec. 15 (6 p.m. start; ¥7,500-¥8,5000; 06-6535-5569). Costello is touring in support his new album "Wise Up Ghost," a collaborative effort with hip-hop outfit The Roots. The Wanted, meanwhile, will be playing Shin Kiba Studio Coast in Tokyo on Dec. 18 (03-3499-6669) and Morinomiya Piloti Hall (06-7732-8888). Both shows will be ¥6,000 and start at 7 p.m.
A few indie shows in Tokyo next month will showcase some of the country's best up-and-coming acts from 2013. First off, check out Flau Night in Tokyo, happening at Vacant in Harajuku on Dec. 22 (4:30 p.m. start; ¥3,000 in advance; 03-6459-2962). Vacant is a great spot to hold this event, which will feature Ikebana, Cuushe, Sparrows, Twigs & Yarn and Black Elk. Cuushe did well overseas this year after releasing her album "Butterfly Case." Due to popular demand, Flau will be releasing a vinyl version of it in early 2014. Ikebana did fairly well overseas, too. The female duo rarely speak to the press but still managed to get on the radar of music journalists at Spin magazine in the States.
Also playing shows next month will be indie group Boys Age. The alt-rock act will perform at Ruby Room in Tokyo on Dec. 7 (7:30 p.m. start; ¥1,000) and Lights Out Rec in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Dec. 15 (3 p.m.; ¥1,500). There will also be a show at Force in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Jan. 11 but details haven't been confirmed yet. The band will release a new album, "Epstein Orkestar," on Dec. 7 and will also feature on a 51-artist compilation being put out by Sauna Cool on Dec. 25.
Shonen Knife are doing a "Space Christmas Tour" next month, but before that happens the band will play a gig with Sebadoh at Metro in Kyoto on Dec. 1 (6:30 p.m.; ¥4,500 in adv.; 075-752-4765). Keiichi Sokabe and Shinsei Kamattechan will also be on this bill, Sebadoh will be coming straight from an appearance at the Hostess Club Weekender in Tokyo they day before. Then, Shonen Knife sets out on a Christmas tour. The group. who made a splash overseas in the 1990s, will hit Osaka's Shinsaibashi Conpass on Dec. 15 (06-6535-5569), Tokyo's Shin Daita Fever on Dec. 21 (03-3444-6751) and Nagoya's Club Upset on Dec. 22 (052-936-6041). All shows cost ¥3,000 and start at 6 p.m.
If pop and rock isn't your thing, an interesting event titled Drums and Voices is happening at Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Tokyo on Dec. 18 (7 p.m. start; ¥5,000; 03-3477-9111). To celebrate 40 years of ASEAN-Japan relations, a pan-Asian smorgasbord of musicians from various southeast Asian countries will play alongside drummer Tsubasa Hori and shakuhachi player Dozan Fujiwara. The concert has toured other parts of Asia since October and the music is being curated by Michiru Oshima.
Also playing Bunkamura next month will be jazz artist Makoto Ozone, who will be gigging with Branford Marsalis there on Dec. 12 (7 p.m.; ¥6,500-¥7,500; 03-3477-3244). The pair will also play at Hitachi Civic Center in Ibaraki Prefecture on Dec. 5 (6:30 p.m.; ¥4,000 for adults; 0294-24-7720), Shunan City Cultural Center in Yamaguchi Prefecture on Dec. 6 (7 p.m.; ¥4,000-¥6,000; 0834-22-8787), Blue Note in Nagoya on Dec. 7 and 8 (5 p.m., 8 p.m. starts; ¥8,900; 052-961-6311) and Sankei Hall Breeze in Osaka on Dec. 10 (7 p.m.; ¥7,000-¥8,000; 06-6341-8888). Ozone will end the year in Sendai for a New Year's Eve show at Denryoku Hall (7 p.m.; ¥6,000; 022-268-2174).
Keeping on the jazz tip, while there should be many options for New Year's Eve entertainment at clubs in most cities across the country, Mado Lounge at the top of Roppongi Hills' Mori Tower in Tokyo will feature jazz singers Karen Aoki and Akiko along with some DJs (8 p.m. start; ¥5,000 in adv.; 03-3470-0052). The singers' lounge style will be a lovely soundtrack for a view over the entire city as the countdown to 2014 commences.
When it comes to countdowns, though, music magazine Rockin' On's four-day event will be tough to beat. The festival takes place at Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba from Dec. 28 to Dec. 31. The first three days will start at 1 p.m. and end around 9:30 p.m. Shows on the final day, though, start at 3 p.m. and end at 5 a.m. The lineup doesn't change much from year to year, headliners include Quruli, Sakanaction, Rip Slyme and Man With a Mission (who will play during the countdown). (Shaun McKenna)
Elvis Costello, ikebana, Flau, Shonen Knife, Cuushe, CSS, The Wanted, Boys Age, Drums and Voices, Michiru Oshima, Makoto Ozone, Branford Marsalis


Did you forget about COPPA? Here are 170 million reasons to remember it.
A deep dive into the circumstances and motivations behind Google's $170M COPPA settlement and why they signal a new era in privacy concerns for game publishers
Since I started blogging here in 2014, I've discussed how COPPA (and later, GDPR) are going to change the mobile gaming world. To some degree, I was the guy saying "The sky is going to fall". And for a long time, not much happened.
The FTC appeared to be unwilling to enforce COPPA, even when faced with an extremely egregious violation in the form of the 2015 Vtech data breach, which exposed all sorts of private information of millions of children – probably the worst imaginable COPPA infraction. Three years later, the FTC fined Vtech just $650,000.
Today, a lot has changed; GDPR has been in force over a year and is finally beginning to be enforced, with Google breaking the ice with a €50M fine, followed by a €183M fine to British Airways and €99M to Marriott, both for data breaches. Unrelated to GDPR, in July the FTC fined Facebook $5 Billion for violating a 2010 consent decree, and many privacy advocates declared the fine too low. Because the US has no general federal privacy law, many U.S. states have been passing their own privacy regulations based on GDPR, with California, Nevada and Maine laws going into effect in just a few weeks.
And this week, following a year-long investigation, the FTC and State of New York announced a mammoth $170M COPPA fine against Google for improperly handling children's privacy on its YouTube platform.
Even though this fine is 30 times larger than any previous COPPA fine, many have pointed out that with Google's $130+ Billion annual sales, this fine equates to a few hours worth of revenues, hardly a deterrent. I'm not here to debate the size of the fine.
So what is my point?
I think game publishers need to understand the megatrends that are running behind these recent actions, with an eye toward where things are going in the next couple of years. I've referred to this megatrend as the "Privacy Tsunami" many times and I still think the name is very apt.
GDPR represents the tip of a spear representing a global backlash to the massive amount of privacy surveillance, tracking and outright data theft that characterized the first 20 years of the Internet age. Regulations are finally catching up with technology. The number and severity of backlash regulations have increased, and I feel comfortable saying that within a few years, every market that you care about will have a stiff privacy regulation in place.
With virtually no COPPA enforcement since 2014, when COPPA was updated, you may wonder why the FTC is suddenly fining Oath $5M, TikTok $5.7M and then Google $170M, just in the last 9 months.
Here's my take. It's political. In the US, we do not have a single federal privacy regulation, just a patchwork of balkanized departmental privacy regs, of which COPPA is just one. HIPAA is another. As the privacy tsunami has come ashore over the past few years, pressure has been mounting for Congress to create a comprehensive federal privacy law similar to GDPR. Unfortunately, Washington has been beset by partisan gridlock since 2012, and other than press releases about Privacy, very little was done.
The vacuum was filled in an odd way. In 2017 a California real estate developer named Alistair MacTaggart was dismayed at the amount of private information and tracking was being done on the web and in apps and devoted several million dollars into gathering signatures and creating a proposition that California voters could vote into law.
The regulation he proposed easily gained enough signatures to become California law. The tech cabal in Silicon Valley realized their days of blissful surveillance and data capture were coming to an end. Rather than let MacTaggart's proposal come to a vote (and instantly go into effect if approved), the Tech lobby made a last-minute deal with MacTaggart, and used their political power to rush a watered-down bill through both California state houses. And that's how the California Consumer Protection Act became law - as a jumbled, self conflicting patchwork, literally thrown together in a few days.
With many similarities to GDPR, CCPA will go into effect on January 1, 2020. Many other states have their own GDPR-like regulations pending, or passed (in the case of Maine and Nevada). In short, we are heading for a world where most states have their own privacy regulation, fines and enforcement agency – an example of the states gaining power and the federal government losing it due to its gridlock.
So, lacking any ability to pass new privacy laws, what was left for Washington to do? Wait, we have this old child privacy regulation that's been in on the books for 19 years! Let's enforce that so we look like we're being an effective part of the global privacy tsunami!
So that is why COPPA is now a red hot topic, and you can expect many more COPPA fines in the coming months. This is also why the FTC has agreed to advance its 10 year scheduled COPPA review by 4 years and is currently seeking comments on ways to improve COPPA.
Based on the Google settlement and several other investigations of which I am aware, I'm here to tell you that COPPA isn't going to be a joke for game publishers anymore. With EU regulators now aggressively enforcing GDPR, the California attorney general enforcing CCPA starting January 1, Nevada's attorney general enforcing SB220 on October 1, and a revitalized and motivated FTC focused on COPPA, I'm strongly suggesting that game publishers "get your privacy act together".
MobileConsoleExtended Reality


Climate change website
science / aasCorals: threatened by global warmingscience / aas
A virtual database about climate change has been launched by the British Embassy in Brazil, by the British Council and by the Child Rights News Agency (Andi). With material in Portuguese the web address is www.mudancasclimaticas.andi.org.br. The site has videos, recordings of statements, photographs, interviews and articles as well as a glossary of terms on the subject. The decision to launch the website, the goal of which is to improve the debate about climate change in Brazil, was taken after Andi and the British Council launched a study about coverage of the subject in 50 Brazilian press vehicles between 2005 and 2007. The analysis identified a series of problems, such as overstating the impact of global warming in detriment to the causes of it, or the scant emphasis given to the implications of the phenomenon for the economic development agenda. "The site reinforces the need identified in the survey for the theme to be put into context better", observes the executive director of Andi, Veet Vivarta.

This work first appeared on Pesquisa FAPESP under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Read the original here.

science / aasCorals: threatened by global warmingscience / aas A virtual database about climate change has been launched by the British Embassy in Brazil, by the British Council and by the Child Rights News Agency (Andi). With material in Portuguese the web address is www.mudancasclimaticas.andi.org.br. The site has videos, recordings of statements, photographs, interviews and articles as well as a glossary of terms on the subject. The decision to launch the website, the goal of which is to improve the debate about climate change in Brazil, was taken after Andi and the British Council launched a study about coverage of the subject in 50 Brazilian press vehicles between 2005 and 2007. The analysis identified a series of problems, such as overstating the impact of global warming in detriment to the causes of it, or the scant emphasis given to the implications of the phenomenon for the economic development agenda. "The site reinforces the need identified in the survey for the theme to be put into context better", observes the executive director of Andi, Veet Vivarta.


Kate Middleton Brings Her Royal Style Signatures to Zoom
By Christian Allaire
Photo: Courtesy of Kensington Palace
Yesterday, Kate Middleton and Prince William took a moment to acknowledge the many teachers across the U.K. who are keeping schools open for the children of key workers and vulnerable children. To amplify that message, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge video chatted via Zoom with staff and students at the Casterton Primary Academy in Burnley, one such school remaining open for those in need. During the call, students shared their Easter-themed arts and crafts projects. Afterwards, the couple then chatted with some of the teachers providing care for the students.
"We just want to say a huge thank you to you guys for keeping it all going," said Prince William to the teachers over video. "Please pass on many messages of support to all of the staff and volunteers; they are doing a great job." Middleton also added, "For all of the parents who are key workers, to know that normality is there for their children, and that they've got the structure and a safe place to be… it's fantastic."
https://twitter.com/KensingtonRoyal/status/1247992637367468033
Admittedly, the video conference call is a highly unusual medium for official royal appearances of this kind, even still Middleton brought forward her signature regal polish. The Duchess chose a high-impact top, a bright orange crewneck sweater by Zara, for the occasion, an easy way to make a stylish impression on the app. She accessorized it with a sleek pair of gold dangly earrings, giving her at-home ensemble an even dressier finish. Prince William, meanwhile, went for a business-causal look in a classic blue button-up shirt.
The couple's joint appearance hit an appropriately pulled-together note, underscoring the message of gratitude to educational workers at this time. With the U.K. and many parts of the world under lockdown for the foreseeable future, there will likely be more royal Zoom appearances in this celebratory and stylish spirit to come.
TopicsKate Middleton


Tag: The Americans
Brain Dump: The Americans, Coco, The Split
A few brief comments on television and movies coming at you in this edition of a brain dump. I'll talk about The Americans , Coco , and The Split . Continue reading "Brain Dump: The Americans, Coco, The Split"
Author Virginia DeBoltPosted on June 4, 2018 Categories Movies, TV seriesTags Abi Morgan, Annabel Scholey, Anthony Head, brain dump, Coco, Deborah Findlay, Fiona Button, Holly Taylor, Jessica Hobbs, Keidrich Sellati, Keri Russell, Matthew Rhys, Nicola Walker, Noah Emmerich, The Americans1 Comment on Brain Dump: The Americans, Coco, The Split
Lois Smith in The Americans and in Ruth & Erica
Last week in the "Do Mail Robots Dream of Electric Sheep" episode of The Americans , Lois Smith was a guest star. It was an important episode of The Americans because it showed the Russian spy, Elizabeth (Keri Russell) as she begins to grasp the horror of what she does as a spy. Continue reading "Lois Smith in The Americans and in Ruth & Erica"
Author Virginia DeBoltPosted on April 3, 2015 February 27, 2016 Categories TV series, Web SeriesTags elders rock, Keri Russell, Lois Smith, Maura Tierney, Michael C. Hall, Philip Baker Hall, Ruth & Erica, Steven Weber, The Americans, WIGSLeave a comment on Lois Smith in The Americans and in Ruth & Erica
Brain Dump: House of Cards, Empire, The Americans, The Fosters
It's a brain dump day. Just a little bit of one thing or another in disconnected ramblings.
Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright in House of Cards
When Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) finally has all the power in the world in his hands, he becomes a tyrant and a bigger ass than he ever was. And when Claire Underwood (Robin Wright) has a chance, she chooses to do the right thing. Unlike dear Frank.
House of Cards is more about the relationship between Frank and Claire than it is about political intrigue and power. Season 3 really brings that home, especially the final moments.
Favorite scenes: 1. When Claire shamed the Russian President on Russian TV. 2. When Frank caused Jesus to go all to pieces. 3. When Claire – aw, shucks, that's too big of a spoiler to share.
Taraji P. Henson and Terrance Howard in Empire
I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying Empire . I know I'm a sucker for any show with music, but I thought this one would be different because I don't enjoy rap. I get tired of all those male voices in rap. But the music on this show is good, with only an occasional bit of rap and with plenty of women performers in the mix.
I'm also into the characters and the drama. Taraji P. Henson as Cookie Lyons and Terrance Howard as Lucious Lyons show off outstanding acting chops in every episode, with the rest of the cast doing just as well. I'm happy it keeps climbing in the ratings, because that means it will probably be back for another season.
Holly Taylor in The Americans
In The Americans , Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings (Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell) have agonized all season over when (or if) to explain to their oldest child Paige (Holly Taylor) that they are Russian spies. Phillip doesn't want to. Elizabeth wants to but can't bring herself to do it. It underscores everything that happens this season from what they do as spies to how they relate to each other and their daughter. It's fascinating to watch their lives and all their assumptions kind of unravel over this issue.
Cierra Ramirez in The Fosters
I think we need more geeky young women on TV as role models. Well, we got one. Cierra Ramirez as Mariana on The Fosters turns out to be quite the hacker. I love Mariana the geek! More geeky girls, please.
Author Virginia DeBoltPosted on March 6, 2015 Categories Streaming, TV seriesTags brain dump, Cierra Ramirez, Empire, Holly Taylor, House of Cards, Keri Russell, Kevin Spacey, Matthew Rhys, Robin Wright, Taraji P. Henson, Terrance Howard, The Americans, The FostersLeave a comment on Brain Dump: House of Cards, Empire, The Americans, The Fosters
Watch This: Previews for Season 3 of The Americans
The Americans will start season 3 on FX on January 28. I've been watching this drama about Soviet spies in the U.S. during the Cold War in the 1980s since the first season. As unlikely as it sounds to say that I like a show about Soviet spies, I am saying it here.
This married couple are not what they seem
Much of the reason this show is so good are the outstanding performances from Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys. They are brilliant in their parts as Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, two KGB officers who pose as a married couple living near Washington, D.C. They have two children, played by Holly Taylor and Keidrich Sellati. Their neighbor Stan (Noah Emmerich) is an FBI counter-intelligence agent who spends his days trying to catch people like them, and his evenings exchanging small talk with them over barbecue.
The spies have a "handler." For a while their handler was played by Margo Martindale, an actress I simply love. This year Frank Langella is stepping into the role of handler. Richard Thomas is also a regular, playing another FBI agent.
There are recognizable events in the story, real characters and real happenings from the period, but ultimately – at least for me – the story is about Elizabeth and Philip: their relationship, their marriage, their family.
How about it? Are there any other fans of The Americans among readers?
Photos © Copyright FX Network
Author Virginia DeBoltPosted on December 17, 2014 Categories TV seriesTags Frank Langella, Holly Taylor, Keidrich Sellati, Keri Russell, Margo Martindale, Matthew Rhys, Noah Emmerich, Richard Thomas, season 3, The Americans, trailersLeave a comment on Watch This: Previews for Season 3 of The Americans
Brain Dump from a Teeming TV Filled Mind
Random thoughts and observations on this and that as seen on my teevee.
Did you see the episode of The Walking Dead called "The Grove?" Brighton Sharbino and Kyla Kenedy as the two young girls were fantastic. Brighton, in particular, was 100% convincing. Very impressed to see such outstanding acting from two young actors.
I'm loving what they've done with The Walking Dead this season: splitting everyone up and charting their journeys to find each other again. (Assuming that they will be reunited at Terminus.) It's given them a way to let characters develop with full episodes devoted almost exclusively to just one or two characters.
Brittany and Santana kiss on Glee
What about this kiss in the episode "100" of Glee . Glee has never been about grown up sex. Yes, there have been relationships but they are immature high school kinds of things. Even the teachers have immature relationships on Glee .
But in the episode called "100" (as in the 100th episode) we see a grown up Brittany, (Heather Morris) dragged into adulthood by numbers and a failure of joy.
Brittany evolved. Who'd a thunk that?
Couple that with a sort-of-grown-up Santana (Naya Rivera). I say sort of grown up because Santana still has a mouth on her that needs to embrace tolerance and forgiveness – mature ideas she hasn't mastered yet. Nevertheless, Brittany and Santana exchange a kiss that is the first grown up, adult looking kiss I've seen on Glee .
A whole episode of Person of Interest was built around Root (Amy Acker). The episode was called "Root Path." Most of the time, Root is only on the screen for a few seconds. Even then she's the most interesting thing in the show – mysterious, powerful, illusive. You know what would make me really happy? An episode that featured only Sarah Shahi and Amy Acker together for a whole show.
Is Castle getting better this season? It seems like the writing has improved. The stories are flat out good. Last year Castle frequently put me to sleep, but there is none of that this year.
The crazy adjustable bed that Stef's mom gave Stef and Lena as a wedding gift on The Fosters is keeping them apart. I say we start a Kickstarter campaign to get Stef and Lena a new bed. A nice flat one. Or, as they put it on OITNB,
Come be my little spoon. #OITNB pic.twitter.com/yaZ0QmiWPF
— Orange Is the New… (@OITNB) November 15, 2013
This show gets more fascinating each week with all kinds of complicated loyalty questions and emotional issues. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys impress me in a new way in every episode. Keri Russell's character slamming that guy's arm over and over again with a trunk lid was really intense and surely will make her face the fact that she's cracking. Plus Margo Martindale was back this week, which is guaranteed to make me happy.
Still ahead this week are Grey's Anatomy and Scandal . Must dump brain before then!
What is burning in your brain from this week's TV?
Author Virginia DeBoltPosted on March 20, 2014 August 8, 2014 Categories TV seriesTags Amy Acker, brain dump, Brighton Sharbino, Castle, Glee, Heather Morris, Keri Russell, Kyla Kenedy, Margo Martindale, Matthew Rhys, Naya Rivera, OITNB, Orange is the New Black, Person of Interest, Sarah Shahi, The Americans, The Fosters, The Walking DeadLeave a comment on Brain Dump from a Teeming TV Filled Mind
Random Thoughts from a Teeming TV Filled Brain
The TV is brewing a brain full of random ideas in me this week. It's a mish-mash.
The Americans season 2 started last night on FX and it's extra good. Don't ask me why I care so much about Russian spies, but Kari Russell and Matthew Rhys make me care. The stakes are so high in this show, the situations so tense, and the drama so tight. I can't tell from the first episode if Margo Martindale will be back in season 2, but they were talking about her as if she won't. She's off on another show now, and I'll miss her here.
With so many shows, I have to record a bunch of them. When I play them back I fast forward through the ads. I really appreciate the shows that have a second or two of something recognizable before each new segment starts. That brief cue lets me stop in time to get the beginning of the action. For example, Person of Interest often shows cityscapes and camera locations just before the action starts. Could all shows please do something like this? Thank you.
Why do actresses decide to have a baby while they are on a hit show? Jennifer Beals and Lauren Holloman both did it on The L Word . Anna Silk did it on Lost Girl . Kerry Washington is having a baby soon with Scandal in the middle of astronomical popularity. There has to be some logic to this, but what is it?
Wow! Did Naya Rivera ever knock "Don't Rain on My Parade" out off the ballpark on Glee this week! The Barbara Streisand franchise on Glee up to now belonged to Lea Michelle – as well it should, she's got it locked – but Naya can belt, too. Indeed.
Can you tell Lady Mary's (Michelle Dockery) two suitors apart on Downton Abbey ? Me either.
Image Credit: Still from The Americans by Craig Blankenhorn via IMDB
Author Virginia DeBoltPosted on February 27, 2014 November 21, 2014 Categories TV seriesTags Anna Silk, Barbara Streisand, brain dump, Downton Abbey, Glee, Jennifer Beals, Keri Russell, Kerry Washington, Lauren Holloman, Lea Michelle, Lost Girl, Margo Martindale, Matthew Rhys, Michelle Dockery, Naya Rivera, Person of Interest, Scandal, The Americans, The L WordLeave a comment on Random Thoughts from a Teeming TV Filled Brain


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At COP26, governments and businesses turned a new leaf on protecting nature to halt climate change
Author Gautam Naik
Theme ESGBiodiversity & NatureClimate Risk & Resilience
At the U.N. conference, asset managers, governments and companies aligned on the use of nature-based tools to tackle climate change.
Nearly $20 billion in public and private funding was pledged to halt deforestation.
There was widening support for blue bonds, which allow ocean-dependent economies to use the proceeds for marine conservation.
Calls to slash energy-related greenhouse gas emissions have been a common refrain at the U.N.'s annual climate summits, and COP26 was no different. At this year's meeting in Glasgow, however, many asset managers, corporations and policymakers embraced a much broader theme: Preserving and harnessing nature to fight climate change.
One reason delegates gave for the sharp focus on nature is the continuing impact of COVID-19. The disease, caused by a virus that possibly emerged from the natural world, has upended lives, stock portfolios and entire economies. And at a higher level, governments and businesses are realizing they cannot fix the climate problem unless they halt the decline of natural systems.
Direct emissions and the destruction of nature are continuously reinforcing each other. Biodiversity loss, for example, affects the climate by changing carbon, nitrogen and water cycles. Destroying forests to clear land for agriculture and urban development also releases a vast amount of previously stored CO2, further heating the air, land and oceans. If tropical deforestation were a country, it would rank third in CO2 emissions behind China and the U.S., based on data from a 2016 study cited by the World Resources Institute.
Global warming, in turn, triggers more droughts and wildfires, killing plants and animals. Warmer seas hurt corals and other marine life. Restoring nature is therefore indispensable to tackling the climate problem — a strategy that risk managers and corporate boards are increasingly starting to accept.
"At this conference, nature has come alongside energy [emissions reduction] as being one of the great solutions to the climate change problem and keeping our planet safe," Andrew Mitchell, a co-founder of the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, or TNFD, said at a panel discussion held during COP26 and moderated by S&P Global Sustainable1.
Deforestation's carbon impact
The idea is that by regrowing forests, restoring coastal wetlands and making agriculture more sustainable, a large quantity of CO2 can be captured from the air and sequestered in plants, soil and sediments. According to an estimate published in the science journal Nature in May 2021, ramping up nature-based solutions quickly could avoid the emission of 10 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent per year — more than what's emitted by the entire global transportation sector.
The momentum behind nature-based strategies has accelerated in recent months. The TNFD launched in June and aims to deliver in 2023 a framework for companies and other organizations "to report and act on evolving nature-related risks." In October, at the first phase of a U.N. biodiversity conference in Kunming, China, more than 100 countries committed to putting biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030. Although that declaration wasn't a binding agreement, it was a spur for new commitments unveiled at COP26.
The long-term challenge is persuading companies to eliminate deforestation completely from their supply chains, while eventually putting a price on nature's bounty that they currently use free of charge.
A Nov. 8 report from S&P Global Ratings noted that although the Amazon rainforest helps regulate the earth's climate, extensive deforestation — mainly to clear land to raise cattle for beef — had turned parts of it into a net source of carbon instead of a sink. Beef producers have not priced in the flora, fauna or climate-stabilizing effects that were lost.
"Had the cost of nature loss been incorporated as a cost of production it would have represented around 12% of these companies' revenues in 2020," or about $4 billion, the report said. "In other words, for every US$100 sale of beef-related products in Brazil there is potentially an additional unpriced cost of US$12."
Combatting deforestation in South America was the focus of another private sector financial commitment at COP26. The U.N.-backed Innovative Finance for the Amazon, Cerrado and Chaco initiative, or IFACC, announced that several large companies were investing $3 billion to shift commodity production in the region to more sustainable models. The group is aiming to disburse at least $200 million by 2022.
Forest pledges and blue bonds
Policymakers and businesses have taken some initial steps to redress nature's plight, though a lot more needs to be done.
At COP26, on Nov. 2, countries including Canada, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia and the Republic of the Congo, which together encompass 85% of the world's forests, agreed to reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030. The pledge was supported by $12 billion of public finance from 12 countries, including the U.K., for the 2021 to 2025 period. The money will help developing countries restore degraded land, tackle wildfires and support indigenous communities.
Private investors stepped in with a further $7.2 billion. More than 30 financial institutions with over $8.7 trillion of global assets also promised to phase out deforestation from their commodity portfolios by 2025. The commitments target products that are closely linked to deforestation, including beef, soy, palm oil, pulp and paper.
The deforestation pledges are projected to deliver a 3.5 gigatonne annual reduction of CO2, one of the largest components of the overall 9 gigatonne CO2 reduction promised by governments at the meeting, according to the Energy Transitions Commission.
"That commitment is a huge step forward; delivering it [is] a crucial priority," said Adair Turner, chair of the commission, in comments made at COP26.
Other announcements followed. On Nov. 6, the U.K. said it would provide £500 million to support the Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade Roadmap in which 28 countries are working together to protect forests while promoting development and trade. A further £65 million will support a "Just Rural Transition" to help developing countries, the U.K. said. About 100 companies also pledged to become "nature positive." Sainsbury's, on behalf of the big five U.K. supermarkets, said it would halve the environmental impact of the average U.K. shopping basket by 2030.
The oceans got some attention, too. On Nov. 1, the first day of COP26, Ecuador said it would significantly extend the marine reserve around the Galapagos Islands in partnership with Colombia and Costa Rica, with a goal of reaching 30% marine protection by 2030.
A few days later, Belize, in partnership with Credit Suisse, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and the Nature Conservancy, said it had closed on a $364 million blue bond and would use the proceeds to help protect 30% of its ocean. On Nov. 10, Fiji said it would issue its first sovereign blue bond in the summer of 2022. The proceeds will go toward marine conservation.
At the Glasgow summit, IDB Invest, the private sector institution of the Inter-American Development Bank Group, also said it had issued a 50 million Australian dollar, 10-year fixed rate bond — the first blue bond in Latin America and the Caribbean. James Scriven, CEO of IDB Invest, which manages $13.1 billion in assets, said IDB had taken on the task of making such opportunities more attractive to overseas asset managers.
Many international investors "have a threshold of investment grade below which they do not or cannot invest," said Scriven, at the Nov. 3 panel hosted by Sustainable1. "So when [a project in a developing country] is already up and running, and the risk is no longer there, we are able to crowd in international investors that are looking for that ESG investment."
This piece was published by S&P Global Sustainable1 and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.
Net zero.Now what?
Gautam Naik
ESGBiodiversity & NatureClimate Risk & Resilience
Our Purpose & Values


Home Earth Freedom From Fracking
Earth, Health, History, Music, Planet Sanctuary
Freedom From Fracking
By Naphtali Ziff September 10, 2021 September 10, 2021
The Costs of Fracking
By Rege Behe
About eleven years ago, Rusted Root's Michael Glabicki met with a group of Pittsburghers concerned about plans to introduce fracking within the city's limits. Since then, he's become increasingly concerned about the procedure's effects.
"I hear from fans whose drinking water has been devastated in their towns and others who have started experiencing earthquakes in their community from fracking," Glabicki says. "People are scared. I am scared."
Glabicki and Rusted Root will headlined "Freedom From Fracking: A Benefit for the Friends of the Harmed" May 16, 2015 at Mr. Small's in Millvale. Mike Stout & the Human Union, Kellee Maize & Friends, Liz Berlin, UJAMAA, Anne Feeney, Smokestack Lightning, DJ Paul Dang, Gene Stovall, Jasiri X, Palermo Stone, Vanessa German, the Benevolent Sneaky Mike and Tom Breiding also are scheduled to perform.
Proceeds will benefit The Friends of the Harmed, which assists families who have been harmed from fracking related activities in the region, via The Thomas Merton Center.
The US Energy Information Administration estimates that there are 2.119 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 25.2 billion barrels of crude oil available in the US via fracking. Fracking is responsible for 90 percent of oil and gas production in the United States, according to National Parks Conservation Organization.
But at what cost?
Food & Water Watch, a public interest organization based in Washington, DC, states that communities in proximity to fracking activities are subject to increased crime, decreased property values, and losses in tourism and agriculture.
Fracking also is exempt from major environmental laws including the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the process uses approximately five million gallons per well. The waste water from fracking can pollute streams, lakes and rivers, and the water supply
"The New York Times just came out with an article citing a new study showing that high levels of Butoxyethanol are showing up in Pennsylvania's drinking water from fracking," Glabicki says. "This stuff is irreversible. I went up to Dimock, (in Susquehanna County) and sat in the living rooms of several families listening to their horror stories. Many had no drinking water and had to ship it in. Many of the children were sick for months before figuring out it was from fracking. I can go on and on. There are so many wells around Pittsburgh and it is just a matter of time before a major disaster happens here."
Glabicki met a former worker in the fracking industry who said he'd dumped truckloads of contaminated water on the side of the road near Dimock. The worker was fearful he'd lose his job if he didn't dump the water.
But contaminated drinking water may be just one consequence of fracking.
"There are so many other issues that we don't know the full extent of yet," Glabicki says. "We just added earthquakes to the list! They are happening in Michigan and West Virginia as well as other areas. Who know what this might turn into? There is much we don't know about the dangers of fracking. Oil companies are going full steam with it, trying to make as much money as they can, before we can figure it out."
Author: Naphtali Ziff
Mr. Pirchesky's spirit has been an entrepreneurial one, and in 2006, he founded the internet business, One World Blue, LLC, with the establishment of the first online site. The long term and overall goal for One World Blue has been to create a social media platform that will be a place for Social and Planetary Healing. The One World Blue Network is a platform to spotlight the good individuals have done to transform the world, celebrate and appreciate cultural diversity, showcase the beauty of the Earth in Planet Sanctuary, and to act as a catalyst for conflict resolution thru the Overture to Peace module. In 2010, the plan was begun to build the social media platform which was given the name Blupela, The One World Blue Social Good Network. After over three years of research, development and investment into this transformative network, Blupela.com now offers this unique social networking experience as it provides a dynamic and comprehensive service by utilizing innovative tools to connect people and ideas with the goal of improving the world one good deed at a time. As the progression of The One World Blue Network has evolved, in December 2014 Mr. Pirchesky completed his Master's program at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his Master's in Public Policy and Management, with a focus in International Development, and graduated Summa Cum Laude.
View all posts by Naphtali Ziff →
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Tetra Pak Commits to 100% Renewable Electricity by 2030
By: 3BL Media: Corporate Social Responsibility, Energy and Health News
SOURCE: Tetra Pak
June 6, 2016 /3BL Media/ - Tetra Pak has joined RE100, committing to increase its use of renewable electricity from 20% today to 100% across all global operations by 2030. The announcement was made at the Clean Energy Ministerial forum yesterday in San Francisco, US.
Charles Brand, Executive Vice President, Product Management and Commercial Operations at Tetra Pak said: "Signing up to RE100 reflects our on-going commitment to minimising our climate impact and increasing our use of renewable resources.
"We have set an ambitious target to ensure carbon emissions across our value chain are capped at 2010 levels through to 2020, and we are making excellent progress. In 2015 emissions were down 15% from the 2010 baseline, despite a 16% increase in production.
"Since setting our climate goal we have maximized our efforts to reduce energy consumption; committing to a renewable electricity target is a natural next step. By joining RE100 we will benefit from expert guidance and peer-to-peer learning on renewable electricity options in different markets."
Mark Kenber, CEO of The Climate Group, said at the forum, "The demand push from corporates is as important as supportive government policy – bold action by businesses, cities and governments sends a strong market signal and means we can hold global warming below two degrees far more quickly.
"The Clean Energy Ministerial is shining the spotlight on RE100 as a model of best practice in galvanizing the switch to renewable energy, and the leadership of influential companies – such as Tetra Pak, which is joining RE100 today – shows the business case for 100% renewables is as strong as ever."
RE100 is a global, collaborative business initiative led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP to drive demand for, and delivery of, renewable power.
Tetra Pak's decision to join RE100 once again underscores its commitment to tackle climate change, and comes just six months after the company joined the Paris Pledge for Action at COP21.
Tweet me: Proud to be announced a member of @theRE100 at the Clean Energy Ministerial http://bit.ly/1Uji4hG #RE100
Carol Yang
+41-217292ext. 303
KEYWORDS: Environment and Climate Change, Tetra Pak, RE100, renewable energy, renewable electricity, Clean Energy, climate impact, renewable resources, Carbon Emissions, the climate group